Student Business Grants: 15 Best Funding Programs for Student Entrepreneurs
If you’re a young entrepreneur looking for a student business grant, you’re in luck! Because there are many programs currently available in Canada to help you start and grow a business.
What is a Student Business Grant?
The Government of Canada defines a grant as:
a transfer payment subject to pre-established eligibility and other entitlement criteria. A grant is not subject to being accounted for by a recipient nor normally subject to audit by the department. The recipient may be required to report on results achieved.
So, a student business grant is:
What Can Student Business Grants Be Used For?
Student business grants can be used to pay for many aspects of starting or running a business. Here are some of the uses that are covered by programs in our grants database:
And that’s just a sample! See the section below with a complete list of student business grants available.
How Much Money Can I Get for My Student Business Grant?
In our database we currently have grants ranging from $1,000 to $50,000.
Am I Eligible for a Student Business Grant? Common Eligibility Criteria
Two of the most common questions we get asked at Ontario Business Grants are “Am I eligible?” and “How do I qualify?”.
We analyzed the student business grants in our grants database, and these are the most common qualifications we identified:
Note: these are just the most common eligibility criteria – there are many grants with different requirements.
How to Apply for Student Business Grants: Follow These 6 Steps
While the application steps for student business grant programs vary, here are some common steps:
- Gather a comprehensive list of all current grants. In Canada, hundreds of business grants are available for different industries, demographic groups, and purposes. Learn what is out there and cast a wide net when you apply to maximise your chances of securing funds.
- Focus on grants related to your industry. Review the application requirements to find out whether your business is eligible. When your business goals fit a particular type of grant, you have better chances of getting matched to it. You want to devote your time and energy to grants where you have the highest potential of winning.
- Reach out to the grant agencies directly. If you want to gain more understanding on what qualities the agencies are looking for in their grant applicants, there is no better way than to go right to the source. If possible, ask the agency questions and look for areas where you can stand out from the rest.
- Make a plan for your grant application. This plan should include a one-page draft of your grant application statement.
- Organise your documents. Grant organisations often ask their applicants to provide a business plan and other pertinent documents. If you organise your documents in advance, you’ll be ready to submit them when the grant agency requests them.
- Submit a well-thought-out application. If you follow the five steps above, your application will have a good chance of getting approved.
Bonus Tip:
- Don’t miss other types of funding. Grants represent just one type of funding, but there are many other types of funding suitable for business owners. These include low-interest loans, wage subsidies, tax incentives, competitions, incubators and accelerators, and many more.
Best Ontario Student Business Grants
While there are lots of good programs available, below we highlight some of the best grants, loans & more for student entrepreneurs:
$3,000
Grant
Summer Company is an amazing opportunity for young entrepreneurs to run their own business over Summer. Participants can expect to receive:
start-up money to kick-off a new summer business
advice and mentorship from local business leaders to help get the business up and running
Learning how to run your own student business is one of the best summer jobs you can have. You get to be your own boss while learning what it takes to manage a business. You’ll develop skills in areas such as sales, marketing, bookkeeping, customer relationship management, networking and more
$3,000
Grant
The Summer Company program (opens in new window) supports eligible young student entrepreneurs, aged 15 to 29, looking to launch and operate a small business during the summer.
No funding involved
In-Kind Support
Have you recently left full-time postsecondary studies and started a new business in Ontario? If yes, apply for the One-Year OSAP Grace Period for Entrepreneurs to get more time before you must start making payments on your OSAP loans.
You have six months after leaving full-time studies when you don’t have to make OSAP loan payments. This is known as your six-month grace period.
If your six-month grace period has not yet ended and you are the owner or joint owner of an eligible new business, you may be eligible for a six-month extension to your existing grace period. This means you would get an extra six months before you must start repaying your Ontario Student Loan and/or the Ontario portion of your Canada-Ontario Integrated Student Loan issued through OSAP.
$106,666
Grant
Mitacs Accelerate Fellowship provides a long-term funding and internship option for master’s and PhD students. Recipients can also access professional development training that helps them ensure project success and gain in-demand career skills.
$15,000
Grant
Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneur provides early-stage support to postdoctoral fellows (PDF) and graduate student entrepreneurs. Accelerate Entrepreneur funds student entrepreneurs to further develop the research or technology at the core of their business when hosted by an incubator facility. This helps student entrepreneurs to take real, meaningful advantage of the supports provided by the incubator, with the goal of commercializing the technology, product, or service rapidly. In a nutshell, they get paid to grow their company and get to market faster.
$3,000
Grant
The program teaches youth the practical skills for starting up a successful business during the summer break. We then coach and fund them to run it.
$2,000,000.00
Loan
FCC provides financing to young entrepreneurs under 40 to start or expand their business. They can purchase shares in, buy, or improve an agricultural or food-related business, and take their dream business to the next level.
No fixed amount
Loan
If you’re looking to transfer farm assets or you’re a young farmer looking to build your farm, the Transition Loan can help make it happen. It allows you to make payments so you can manage your cash flow or build equity quickly – the choice is yours.
$10,000.00
Grant
The Youth Innovation Component encourages youth to find accessibility barriers in their communities. They work with local organizations to improve accessibility and safety in community spaces and workplaces.
$50,000.00
Grant
Digital Greenhouse is a digital innovation initiative for Canadian individuals, groups and organizations. It supports short-term projects that leverage digital technology to address sectoral and digital challenges, including:
1. the development of new digital tools and solutions that increase the resilience, sustainability, and discoverability of the arts sector,
2. the development of sector-wide and cross-sector collaborations, partnerships, and networks to support innovative digital business models, revenue models and monetization strategies,
3. sectoral approaches aimed at strategically increasing the digital/data literacy and ongoing digital transformation of the arts sector,
4. addressing challenges and exploring digital solutions related to accessibility, equity, diversity, decolonization, social justice, and climate responsibility created by, or relevant to, the digital world,
5. addressing challenges and exploring solutions related to the lack of access to digital infrastructure for remote regions and Northern and under-represented communities.
The Bottom Line
There are many excellent programs currently available to students to start a business in Canada.
But don’t forget that there are many more types of funding programs than grants. When looking for funding for your start-up, widen your search to loans, business competitions, entrepreneurship programs, and the many other types of financing that are available for different demographic groups, industries, and purposes of funding.